Mahanta cries foul over inflow of ‘illegal migrants’ to Assam from neighbouring states

GUWAHATI, August 22: Former Assam chief minister and a senior leader of regional Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, has expressed concern over inflow of suspected illegal migrants to Assam after they have been driven out of neighnouring states including Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, post publication of the final draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam.
The former Assam Chief Minister said that Assam had remained a dumping ground for illegal migrants for decades and the problem as likely to be compounded further if the suspected illegal migrants who have been driven out of the neighbouring states, continued to come to Assam.
Mahanta expressed his concern over the silence being maintained by the present government in the state. It may be mentioned that the AGP too is a key constituent of the BJP-led government in Assam as on date.
It may be mentioned that Operation Clean Drive launched by All Arunachal Pradesh Students Union (AAPSU) has resulted in detection and driving out of 2,205 Inner Line Permit (ILP) violators across the state. Most of those deported persons have entered Assam.
Similarly, many such persons were pushed back to Assam from Meghalaya by a section of NGOs who had suo moto took upon themselves to detect suspected illegal migrants travelling to and through the state in the wake of publication final draft NRC in Assam. However, Meghalaya government finally prevailed upon those NGOs and the task of detection of suspected illegal migrants was left to the state police at the check post on state borders.
Mahanta also criticized the Assam State BJP president Ranjeet Dass’ comment that the final updated NRC was unlikely to be published by the end of this year given that the Foreigners’ Tribunals are taking lots of time to dispose of cases pending before them.
The final draft NRC which was published on July 30 last, has not included names of those persons against whom cases were pending in various Foreigners’ Tribunals in the state.
It may be mentioned that the Supreme Court of India is monitoring the progress of updating the NRC of 1951 in Assam with the midnight of March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date. The court had earlier directed the NRC coordinator of Assam to complete the process and publish the final updated NRC by the end of December this year. (Agencies)